It is known to equip bearings with sensors and electronic devices of various types. These devices need to be powered while maintaining the bearing ISO dimensions. Further, the powering solutions should be scalable and cost efficient.
An internal power supply can be implemented by means of a battery, but this limits the “mission time” as the battery life is limited. In addition, the environmental conditions, e.g. high temperatures, are very demanding. A better way of an internal power supply is to generate the required power inside the bearing. The latter approach is also known as Energy Harvesting.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,184 discloses a double-row tapered roller bearing containing a generator for producing electrical energy. The generator includes a rotor and a stator arranged between the two rows or rollers. The rotor carries a plurality of permanent magnets with alternating polarity and the stator ring is provided with a plurality of teeth separating winding slots and carrying a coil respectively. The teeth and the central axes of the coil are oriented radially inward toward the permanent magnets.
The design proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,184 is not very flexible and has limited range of functions.
The document WO 2013/160035 discloses a power generating assembly configured to be integrated in a bearing assembly, wherein the power generating assembly interacts with a magnetic wheel comprising magnetically polarized material with alternating directions of polarizations.